balmobe



2 Sheets-Sheet 1.

(No Model.)v

J. BALMORE.'

CAR FENDER.

No. 548,286. K Patented 0013.22, 1895.

WITNESSEs (No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

J. BALMORE. GAR FENDER.

No. 548,286. Patented 001;.22, 1895.

INVENTOR: WITNES S: yg e@ By his Afzeys.

'Ur-irren STATES JOHN BALMORE, NEW

,PnrglNTV OFFICE..

YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO EDWARD E. GOLD, OF SAME PLACE.

CAR-FENDER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 548,286, dated October 22, 1895.

' Application nea August 28,1893. seau 110,484,176. (No model.)

To all whom icm/wy concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN BALMORE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Car- Fenders, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to fenders or guards carried'at the front of a car for preventing injury to persons with whom the car may col lide, being especially designed for street-cars or tram-cars, such as electric or cable cars.

The invention provides a fender carried at the front of the car and presenting yielding or elasticcushions or buffers at its forward or exposed side, so that in case of colliding with a pedestrian he will be protected as far as possible from injury. The fender extends from the platform down as close as is practicable to the track, so that a person who is run into,

even if thrown down, cannot be run over by the car. The yielding buffers of the lfender are constructed as pneumatic cushions, being made of yielding material and inflated with air under suitable pressure. The fender is ordinarily lifted somewhat from the track in order to prevent its striking the track in case of the longitudinal sway of the car and is movable vertically in order that it can be lowered to the track in case an accident to a pedestrian is imminent. To this end the fender is preferably made to slide vertically, being pressed down by a strong spring and held up by a latch which can be instantaneously released by the driver or motorman. The fender-frame is pivoted so that it can be turned up against the dashboard out of the way when the direction of travel of the car is reversed at the end of its route.

Figure l of the accompanying drawings is a fragmentary vertical mid -section of the front portion of a car, showing my invention applied thereto. F ig. 2 is a plan thereof,l the car-body being in horizontal section. Fig. 3 is a front elevation, the track being in section. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional view.

The drawings show the preferred form and construction of my invention, which I will now proceed to describe in detail.

Let A designate the front platform of a car, and B the dashboard. Supported in any suitable manner at the front of the car is a fender, which as a whole is lettered O. This fender is preferably constructed of a fender- 'frame D and one or more yielding buers E 55 E. The fender-frame D is constructed and braced in any suitable manner and projects downwardly and forwardly from the front of the platform, terminating as close above the track as is safe and convenient. The buffers 6o E E are preferably three in number, as shown, although this number may be greatly varied. -These buffers are also preferably constructed as elongated cushions extending horizontally across the buffer frame from side to side 65 thereof in substantially the manner shown;

`but their shape, form, and arrangement are .susceptible of considerable variation. The

buffers are made in any suitable manner so as to constitute yielding cushions, in order 7o that a person who may be struck by the fender shall not be injured.

The preferred construction of the buffers, which constitutes an important feature of my invention, consists in making them as pneumatic cushions, each buffer consisting of a flexible bag or envelope inflated or distended with air under sufficient pressure. The cush- `ions may be made, for example, of alternate layersof textile fabric or vulcanized india- 8o rubber in order to impart to them the necessary strength and flexibility. They may be attached to the fender-frame D in any suitable manner-as, for example, by constructing this frame with convex plates a a, extending from side to side, to which plates the pneumatic cushions are cemented or otherwise fastened.

`The fender C, as thus described, being carried at the front of the car, is in position to 9o strike any person or animal that may be run down by the carin advance of their being encountered by the car itself. The person so struck will be given a yielding blow through the medium of the air-cushions, so that he will sustain no injury, and by reason of the projection of the lowermost cushion beyond the others he will be tripped up and will fall upon the fender and becarried along thereon instead of falling beneath the car and being roo run over, as would occur in case the fender were not used.

to construct it so as to be movable and ad-4 justable in the manner which I will proceed to describe.

In order that when the car is reversed and run the other end foremost the fender shall not project from the rear platform and oer a tempting support onto which children will be liable to jump and ride, I pivot frame D on its upper portion,so that it may be turned up against the dashboard in the manner shown clearly in dotted lines in Fig. l. When so turned up, it may be fastened by a hook b on the dashboard engaging an eye c on the fender-frame or in any other suitable manner. When thus turned up, the fender is completely out of the way and projects but a slight distance beyond the dashboard at the point where its projection is not disadvantageous. In order properly to brace the fender when itis down in position, I provide it with a diagonal brace or strut bar d, projecting backward from it and bearing against the supporting-frame F, to which the fender is pivoted, and which being mounted in any suitable manner on the front of a car projects downward far enough to aiford the requisite support to the lower end of the fender through the medium of the braces d, of which there may be one, two, or more. This frame F might turn up with the fender-frame D; but this would involve an undesrably great projection beyond the dashboard. Accordingly I prefer to pivot the fender-frame D through the supporting-frame F, andin order to prevent the undue projection of the braces d I pivot these also to the frame D, in order that when turned up they shall hang down in the manner shown in dotted lines in Fig. l, thereby occupying the minimum aniountof room. When the fenderis thrown down, these braces drop by their own weight into position against the frame F, and their displacement thereagainst is prevented by means of lugs or projections d on the outer side of this frame. The operation of the fender is consequently very simple and easy, since to throw it into action it is onlyr necessary to swing it out and hook it, and to throw it out of action again it is only necessary to unhook it and drop it down.

Since it is practically undesirable to extend the fender-frame D as high as the upper level I of the cushion or buffer should be arranged,

I provide for supporting the upper cushion or buffer (lettered E) directly upon the front platform or dashboard of the car. In the construction shown this buffer is mounted on a plate a', which plate is permanently attached to the buffer-beam of the front platform. In case of the removal of the fender, with its attached buffers, this remaining buffer E would in part serve the purpose of the fender, since it would prevent the injury of any person with whom the car might collide by the blow which should be struck him by the car, al-

though it would not prevent the possibility of his falling beneath the car. The arrangement of this cushion E just above the pivotal mounting of the fender-frame is such that when the fender is turned up the uppermost cushion of the fender swings into place just above this stationary cushion E in the manner shown in dotted lines. If a cushion E were mounted on the fender-frame, it would be necessary to carry the pivotal axis of this frame above this cushion, and in addition to carry this pivotal axis out farther from the front of the platform in order to provide room for the cushion E to swing to admit the turning up of the fender, which disadvantages are overcome by the construction of the cushion E as a fixture mounted directly upon the car and distinct from the fender-frame.

It is desirable that a fender of this description shall be carried down as close above the track as is practicable. In ordinary streetcars or tram-cars the car is subject to a considerable rocking motion orlongitudinalswaying, which, in case the fender were brought too close to the track, would be liable to cause it to strike the track or pavement during such oscillation of the car. To avoid this l terminate the fender sufficiently above the track to prevent its being brought into violent contact therewith by any probable degree of such oscillation. As this would carry the fender too high above the track to render it thoroughly efcient in case of accident, it being desirable in case a passer-by is run down by the car to have the fender approach as close to the track or pavement as possible, I provide for imparting to the fender a movement in vertical direction, in order that the fender may be thrust down bodily to bring its lower portion close against the track,this movement of the fender being placed Linder the control of the driver, motorman, or gripman of the car, in order that when he finds that a collision with a pedestrian is inevitable he may depress the fender for the moment to its lowermost position. To make the fender thus vertically movable I construct it to have a sliding connection with its support on the car, this sliding connection being preferably constructed in the manner shown, where the fender is supported upon vertical bars or posts G G, projecting downwardly from the opposite end of the buffer-beam of the carplat form, being braced at their lower ends by diagonal braces g. The supporting-frame F of the fender has a sliding engagement with the posts G G, being constructed with ears f f, which embrace these posts and slide upon them.

The fender. may be pressed down by a treadle or in any other desired way and may be normally upheld and fall by its own weight when released. The preferred construction consists in the provision of a spring or springs S, tending to press down the frame F, and consequently also the fender, the fender, however, being normally upheld bya catch II. In

IIO

the construction shown this catch operates upon an upwardly and backwardly projecting arm h, projecting from a cross-piece e, forming part of the frame F. The construction of the catch His best shown in Fig. 4. It consists of an elbow-lever the upright arm of which comes beneath the arm h. Whilea horizontal arm i constitutes a treadle projecting into position to be pressed down by the foot in order to swing the upright arm out from under the arm h, and thereby release the fender to permit it to be pressed down by the springs S to its lowermost position.

Instead of providing a fixed stop for limiting the downward movement of the fender,I construct it to be stopped by encountering the track itself, in order that whatever be the variations in the height of car-platforms or the extent to which the car shall be swaying the fender shall descendrto the lowermost practical position. To this end I provide the fender with Wheels or rollers J J, mounted, preferably, on a transverse axle I, journaled in the fender-frame. These wheels J are preferably flangeless, although they might have flanges like car-Wheels, if preferred. By being devoid of flanges they are better adapted for action in case the fender is dropped at a point where there is a curve in the track or some irregularity such as would interfere with the action of flanged wheels or give them a tendency to throw the car o the track. After the fenderhas been lowered and it has done its work, before the car is again started the fender should be lifted to again compress the springs S, whereupon the catch H, being actuated by a. spring j, will automatically snap under the arm h of the fender and set itself ready for the neXt 0peration.

That my invention may be modified in numerous particulars will be obvious from the foregoing description. It should be distinctly understood that I do not limit myself to all of the several details or special constructions which I have described. Those features of my invention which I consider essential thereto are hereinafter defined in the claims.

I prefer to make the fender C reversible, so

that it may be used at either end of the car. 5o

This may be accomplished by detachably connecting the fender-frame D to the car at its pivotal connection with the sliding frame F, as shown, so that by freeing the pivotal bolts :r a: the fender can be removed and placed in a corresponding position at the opposite end of the car, which end will be supplied with duplicates of the posts G and frame F.

I claim as my invention the following-de- 6o 'ned novel features, substantially as hereinbefore specilied, namely:

1. The combination with a car of a supporting frame G fixed beneath the platform and having braces g, of a fender C having aframe by the fender may be raised or lowered, and

when out of use may be turned up out of the way.

3. In a car fender, the combination with a supporting frame F and fender frame D pivoted thereto, of a brace d pivoted to the fen- 8o der frame and having itsl free end abutting against said supporting frame.

4. In combination with a car, a cushion E Iixedly mounted on the front platform thereof, and a fender C consisting of a frame carry- S 5 ing transverse cushions E E and pivotally connected to the car so that it may be turned up when out of use, its pivotal axis being adjacent to said cushion E and its cushions E being arranged to pass by the cushion E 9o when the frame is turned up.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

JOHN BALMORE. Witnesses:

GEORGE H. FRASER, CHARLES K. FRASER. 

